Mother nature is Still in Charge

05 October 2009 | Shelburne, NS

Beth / windy

It was warmer Saturday morning as we motored out the western channel to head south again. Speaking of heading south - from here we are going almost due West in order to get to the southern tip of Nova Scotia and across the Gulf of Maine.

We made much better time - still motoring but not fighting wind and current as much. The boat that had been anchored with us in Port Mouton turned into Shelburne but we kept going as we debated our course of action and the weather reports. The window for crossing the Gulf was nonexistent so we abandoned our previous idea of continuing on across to beat the coming winds. Instead, we opted to tuck in behind Cape Negro Island in the hope that we would be well enough protected for the night, and would be in position to continue if Sunday looked better. The difficulty is that West winds are forecast for the next several days and those are not good winds for us.

Once the decision was made to stop, we turned off the engine and leisurely sailed along at 3.5 knots. It felt good. We were adjusting our plans to suit the forecast, and we were travelling as a sailboat is meant to travel. Just before 4 p.m. we dropped the anchor, switched on the radio to catch the updated marine weather and decided we needed to change our plans once again. We were too exposed for 25 knot SE winds, and if the weather continued as forecast, there would be no chance of getting out the next day. So... the anchor came up again and we turned back to Shelburne. (This is the first time we have ever actually turned back anywhere, I think.) It took just over an hour to retrace our path to the entrance to Shelburne Harbour and more than that to reach the mooring field at Shelburne yacht Club. It didn't feel so good any more, but by 7 p.m. we were secured for the second time.

I had put a pork tenderloin with vegetables and maple-mustard marinade into the oven as we travelled so we were able to eat as soon as we got settled. I brought a couple of Nova Scotian Crystal wine glasses with us this trip so we enjoyed box wine in elegant goblets in a lovely harbour - even if it was not where we really wanted to be.

I woke up at 2:49 on Sunday morning to an absolutely still boat - no rain or wind - and thought, "Drat! The forecast was wrong!" but by 4am, the wind was moaning in the rigging and we had a gentle rock happening. We were very happy to have made the move because the rest of the day was miserable. It rained off and on, the wind gusted up to 20 knots and we could feel Madcap tugging on her mooring lines. We read, did boat chores, stowed all the things that we had just tossed onboard and whiled away the day.

On Monday morning, we were still making power as the wind generator twirled around. (It' s a KISS and the blades make hardly any noise, but there is a vibration in the pole that we have to get rid of - rattle rattle moan moan!) The sun came out and it is a perfectly lovely day. We dinghied ashore and met folks on Nauti Rowdy, and Petite Ourse who are also waiting to cross. That is the lovely thing about passages - there are always other folks doing the same thing. A conversation with Rick at the Yacht Club yielded lots of information on southern destinations, as well as shared stories of encountering US Border Protection rules and regulations.

The trouble is that the forecast is still nasty: W up to 25 today and tomorrow, then SE which is OK but up to 35 knots which isn't. At the moment, Friday looks like NW20 diminishing to light. That's great if it doesn't change again while we are out there in the Gulf.

Rather than wait here, we called Mary Beth this morning to see if she'd come pick up her parents and take us home again for a few days. Sweet girl that she is, she agreed even though I'm sure she thought she was rid of us for a few months. It's less than 3 hours to get back to our cosy house in Halifax so we'll take ourselves and our dirty laundry back there until the weather looks better. Good thing we are flexible!

The picture above is of our mooring field at South Shore Marine at dawn on departure day. What is that saying about red sky in the morning??

Beth and Jim have spent the last several winters sailing southern waters on s/v Madcap. They love Halifax in the summer, but plan to spend the winters exploring warmer places - currently the Guatemala, Belize, Honduras area.

Extra:

The Madcap crew left Ottawa in 2007 to go sailing in the Bahamas. After a highly successful year, they returned to Canada, settled in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and in the fall of 2009 they left to do it again! Journey #3 (2010/11) took them back to the Bahamas and then on to Cuba for several weeks [...]

before laying the boat up in Fernandina Beach, FL for the summer.
For the 2011/12 season, they sailed down through the Florida Keys, across to Mexico and on to Belize and Guatemala. Madcap resided in the Rio Dulce under the care of Casey Brooks for the next few summers and they explored Guatemala and Belize during the winter of 2012/13, and the Bay Islands of Honduras in 2013/14. They were back onboard in January 2015 for another season in Rio Dulce and Belize. Madcap is spending the summer of 2015 at Tortugal Marina in Rio Dulce, Guatemala while Beth and Jim enjoy their land base in Nova Scotia.
They set off again in November 2015 for the 2015/16 season.
Contact info: Jim - captainmadcap@hotmail.com and Beth - madcapmum@hotmail.com